Follow up to Sunday's teaching

So, here it is Wednesday and I am just getting around to doing a follow up post about the teaching I gave on Sunday.

First, thanks to everyone who has given me so much encouragement and support for the things I shared on Sunday. It is very affirming to receive that kind of support.

Also, many of you have asked where I get the information that I shared on Sunday. I can mention two really great sources--one is secular and the other is Christian. The first is:
www.realclearpolitics.com This site is updated twice a day and it is a compendium of articles and op-ed pieces from papers and magazines from all over the nation. It covers the political spectrum and you can read about three or four pieces in a matter of a few moments. Great resource.

The Christian site is: www.ifapray.org This site really has a focus on intercession and is a great resource on political issues that have spiritual implications. You can also sign up for e-mail updates which come regularly and are easy to navigate. Like today the headline issue in the update has to do with pending legislation that would fund research involving the cloning of human embryos. I have copied below the post on this matter to give you a taste of what is available on the alerts and to illustrate that the beat goes on in Washington.

Congressional advocates of using human embryos in research recently admitted that they are drafting legislation to potentially fund human "therapeutic cloning." Pray that all misleading language and "stealth" legislative maneuvers to fund "therapeutic cloning" be exposed and thwarted. Pray that the Lord raise up voices to oppose it. On March 9, President Obama issued an executive order that removed certain limits on federally funded human embryo research that had been adopted by President Bush in 2001. Obama said that he opposed "the use of cloning for human reproduction," but pro-life observers quickly pointed out that this was familiar code language employed by those who favor using cloning to create human embryos for research that will kill them; this procedure is sometimes given the misleading term "therapeutic cloning." In an interview with Congressional Quarterly Today, published on April 27, 2009, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) acknowledged that a bill she is drafting in concert with Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) and others would authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund research that would involve creating human embryos using "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT). This laboratory technique has been used to create thousands of cloned mammals without sperm. SCNT research began with the famed cloned sheep named Dolly in 1997.
"This statement is important, because DeGette and others who favor human cloning have been relying on stealth and misleading terminology to advance their agenda," commented National Right to Life Legislative Director, Douglas Johnson. "They know that the public opposes the creation of human embryos by cloning," Johnson stated. While "DeGette says her legislation will contain language outlawing reproductive cloning," Johnson argues that her "proposal is deceptively labeled, and is a sham ... that will promote human cloning, and then try to punish anyone who allows a human clone to survive. This would be the first federal law that now merely allowed but actually required the snuffing out of an entire class of human beings." (NRL News May '09)

Anyway, that is an update and follow up to what I shared on Sunday.

Blessings,

Pastor Rick

1 comments:

Peter said...

Rick,

Thanks for last Sunday's teaching, although I wasn't there, I just had the opportunity to listen to the podcast. I have to encourage you for bringing the issues to light and facing them head on. We are in ever changing times, we do need to keep tabs on our Liberty lest we loose it. It is good to know we can stand on the constant of the One true God no matter what happens in life and politics.

Thanks again.
Peter